Meet Riley....

Ben and I have gotten a foster dog. His name was Roy, but we renamed him Riley which means "Valiant Warrior" in Irish. He's had a bit of a rough start. He was found locked up and tied down in a shed on the edge of someone's property. The owners of the property had just purchased the house and heard a dog barking and thought it was a neighbors dog. About two weeks later the owner was taking a walk and heard the barking again. He followed the bark to a shed where he had to break through the lock and found a dog tied down inside. The dog (Roy) couldn't even stand up because he was so weak. They figure he was locked in there for at least two weeks, probably longer.

Despite his rough start, this 80 pound, 1 year old dog doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He is just one big lovable goof. Although we named him Riley (for now) we have called him many other names since we picked him up 6 hours ago including, "Shit for Brains", "Damnit!", "Gomer Pyle," and the list goes on. Riley has claimed a specific wall....twice, as well as trying to claim our poor innocent Aida. He's still in tact....that will be corrected right quick and in a hurry.

All he wants to do is play. He can jump up in the air 6+ feet to catch a ball. He is absolutely skin and bones and once he gains some weight should be at least 100 pounds. But he is a lovable guy. Hopefully he'll be adopted soon and have a new start in life. :)

Vote Today!

Right now there is a site called "The Animal Rescue Site" that is having a contest to award $20,000 in grants to your favorite animal shelter/organization. All you have to do is go to the site and vote every day for your shelter/organization of choice. Since Ben and I have become involved with the Virginia German Shepherd Rescue I would like to ask you to vote for them, however if you have another rescue organization you are involved with please vote for them.

Just visit: http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

Then go to the side tab labeled "Shelter Challenge" and cast your vote. You don't have to register or even enter your email address, but the limit is one vote per computer per day. If voting for VGSR (Virginia German Shepherd Rescue) simply type in the name where prompted.

Please help us out in trying to move up in the rankings. Right now VGSR is ranked number 139 in the US. Thanks!

*I should be posting Thanksgiving pics later today! :)*

A Welcome Visitor

This little (actually he was quite big) guy was on our sidewalk when Aida and I got back from our walk. I ran inside and grabbed my camera. It has been so long since I've seen a praying mantis. I then had to go outside and rescue him as he was still on our sidewalk and the kids from the neighborhood were out playing basketball in the culdesac and they usually end up running thru our yard and i didn't want him to get smashed.

My good deed for the day. :)

Oink Oink!/O-H-I-O!

So these past weeks have been interesting.

We went back Ohio for our good friend's wedding reception several weeks ago. We had a great time and were so happy to be able to attend. Here are the pics from the wedding:



After the weekend was over we headed back to Virginia with Dad. We asked him to come spend the week with us as we were going to head back to Ohio, yet again, the following weekend for Daniel's Homecoming game at Ohio State. That week Dad cracked the whip. He was our resident handyman, landscaper and dog whisperer....let me explain. He wanted to help out around the house by organizing our garage and fixing a hole where he and Ben had previously turned a gas pipe around to hook up our grill. One of the days he went all "Edward Scissorhands" on our landscaping. Five yard bags, a cut extension cord and several scrapes later, we had finished trimming the front yard. And now for my favorite descriptor, "dog whisperer." One night I made pot roast. Ben and Dad were in and out working on the lawn mower (the handyman was tweaking it). Dad wanted to test it out and opened our double gate to the backyard and walked up to the garage to get the mower. Once he got to the mower it wasn't working quite right so he went back to the basement. All the while I was in the kitchen working on dinner. I called them both up for dinner. Ben came up, but Dad was still in the basement working on something. I got the thinking, "Where is Aida?" She hadn't been hovering around in the kitchen like usual. I called down and asked Dad if she was in the basement with him. He replied, "Isn't she up there with you?..." "No." Dad says, "OH S*%#!!!!!!!" It turns out, while Ben and Dad were in and out, they let the dog out, forgot she was out, and also forgot that the gate was open. So she had feasibly been "out on the town" for an hour. So we all went out into the dark yelling for Aida (who wasn't wearing a collar). After about 2 minutes I see a shadow come running towards me from around the pond. It was a smelly, soaking wet, Aida. She had apparently taken a dip in the pond chasing the geese no doubt. Dinner was put on hold while we gave Aida a bath. It was quite the eventful night.

Back to Ohio we went to see Daniel on Homecoming Court. We had a great time. It was my first Ohio State game and we had the best seats. It was a little cold, but we were so happy to be there for Daniel. Although he didn't win King, we are still so proud of him and think that it is amazing that he was on the court. Here are the pics from the Homecoming weekend. I also have another album on my web albums that are pics from the camera Daniel had so make sure to check it out.





After returning from Ohio, I came down with it....the dreaded H1N1...the Swine Flu! I must say, i wouldn't want to get the pig flu again, but it certainly wasn't the gloom and doom the media has portrayed it to be. Ben called off work one day to take care of me (he's so sweet) and as long as I routinely took Tylenol or Advil I was able to keep my fever down. But i'm better now and hopefully we won't have to deal with the oink flu again!

Under the Knife (again)

It has been a year now since Ben's infamous accident at work. And although he has been able to be back at work, full duty, since April this past year, he has been in a lot of pain. So after his one year checkup with his surgeon a third surgery has been scheduled. Come December 14, 2009, Ben will bid ado to his plate and nine screws that have taken up residence in his right wrist since his surgery last year. The surgery brings hope that he will regain more mobility and less pain in the future.

He will be out of work for 2 to 3 months letting his "swiss-cheese" of a bone heal. And with any luck, this will be the very last surgery having to do with his wrists. So stay tuned for some more pics of his surgery battle wounds after December 14th.... :)

Well S@#*!

It finally happened. Our beloved "boob-tube" of a television has called it quits. Unfortunately, Ben and I cannot afford a new television at this point (way too many more important things to spend our money on I suppose).

Ever since we got the TV (a hand-me-down from Ben's parents) about a year and a half ago it has been warning us that it wasn't going to last by randomly turning itself off. In order to get the damn thing to turn back on we had to unplug it and wait a minute or two and then plug it back in and push the power button. Sometimes it would take several attempts, but usually after two or three tries we would get it back on. Yesterday, however, the TV threw a fit. It turned off while Ben was watching something and so he went through the process of unplugging, etc. After about five attempts, several cursings, and a slamming of the cabinet door, Ben gave up. Then he was off to work. I left the TV alone for a few hours and tried it again. It turned on, SUCCESS!...then it shut off. I tried again and again to no avail. So I unplugged it and let it be for the night.

I came home from church (I was being a good little Catholic girl :) ) and hoped that the TV would work while I ate my lunch. It doesn't even show a picture anymore before it shuts off. Oh well. Back to the stone age of no television (in the living room) we go.

Our Wonderful Visit

Ben and I recently had the pleasure of having Mom, Dad, Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry come to our home and stay for the weekend. We had a blast. I can't remember the last time we've laughed so hard. We visited wineries, local restaurants, Skyline Drive, the State Arboretum, and just hung out around the house. We played several rounds of Cranium which brought out the acting and humming talents of everyone...i never knew we had such a talented family. Uncle Larry's rendition of Bill Cosby moved me to tears...literally...I laughed so hard i cried. Mom nailed an impression of Robert Deniro. It was good time had by all. We can't wait for everyone to come back and visit.

Other than the visit there have been a few other happenings. I visited the ER at the local hospital the morning before we had our visitors. Nothing serious, I just had Vertigo. Wouldn't recommend that to anyone....it sucks. But I am all better now. Ben is going in for surgery number 3 probably in December (it's not scheduled yet). His doctor felt that the plate and screws that are still in his right wrist were impeding his range of motion and causing him some discomfort and pain. Therefor the plate and nine screws are going to be removed and he'll be out of work for 2-3 months.

That's about all the updates for now. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!